Muret
The castle was built on an island where the Loja flowed into the Garona and was held by the Muret
family, a Geoffrey Muret being mentioned in the twelfth century.
The battle of Muret was fought here on 12 September 1213. It
began as a siege of the castle and bourg and ended as an open
battle - one of the very few of the Cathar Crusades. The castle
was besieged by the forces of King Peter II of Aragon, who had come to
the aid of the Occitan forces of his vassal Count Raymond VI of
Toulouse (d.1223). The besieging force was in turn attacked by the
disciplined Crusader army of Simon Montfort (d.1218) who won a surprise
victory and killed his overlord for Carcassonne,
King Peter. Unfortunately the battlefield, like the castle, has
been largely built over by the sprawling suburbs of Muret.
Description
The castle site has been totally built over, leaving a sad remnant of a once proud castle
that controlled the access to Toulouse from the west.
Why not join me at other French
castles? Information on this and other tours can be found at Scholarly
Sojourns.
Copyright©2019
Paul Martin Remfry